The number of Powerlifters and Olympic Weightlifters that have squats that haven't budged in a year or longer is shocking. Do you not want your squat to grow? Honestly, you have not reached your prime. You have not reached your genetic potential, in fact you are FAR from it. So then what the heck gives? I'm going to present a couple of our team case studies and then we can dig into the details of what you are most likely missing.
Joe Reisigl
Start Date: 5/15/21
Starting Back Squat: New (45lb - 155lb) /May 2021
Current Back Squat: 452lb /November 2024
Joe came to Rambo with a previous high school basketball background from 6+ years prior. First time on the barbell at Rambo he started off empty bar and by the end of his first month had reached about 155lb on the back squat and by year's end (end of 2021) he reached a 275lb back squat PR. By the end of 2022, 315lb. By the end of 2023, 358lb. And by the end of 2024 (now), 452lb. Not bad AT ALL for his first 2.5 years of training with more to come by the end of this year. These check points show vital growth trends into understanding why Joe has progressed the way he has. Nearly 100lb added to his squat in the past year should raise eye brows! And the kicker? He's trained 3x per week since starting with only the past month entering 4 days per week for about 3 weeks. Generally though Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Sometimes Friday gets pushed to Saturday.
In his initial entrance into training, he only trained back squat one day per week through those 7 months of 2021. Utilizing a "big set" and 15-20 reps between 67.5-77.5% we really only ever took rep maxes except for an occasional push when he'd cap out in the big set mathematically derived. Every single week he PR'd and how motivating is that! On his 3rd day of the week he would train up accessory movements to boost up muscle growth and provide a "minimal stimulus" to keeping the squat trained without 7 days between. And no matter what, deloading with large scale variation every single 4th week. By the end of his first year (around April 2022) we experimented with RPE sets and letting him take singles a touch more often while continuing to maintain his base of volume with back off sets and using accessories to really dial things up (belt squat, lunges, step ups, etc.). In June 2022 we re-entered a similar style to his first 9 months of training but this time with the addition of slightly more heavier squat stimulus on his "secondary day" via Yoke Bar Bulgarian Split Squats, Leg Press, and Goodmornings - this all carried him to a 315lb squat by that August. After which, we decided to dedicate more time to his deadlift and bench while maintaining his squat with accessories and only aiming to bring up rep maxes to compliment, recover for, and bring up his deadlift. Then, around the start of 2023 we brought back in more volume for the squat and started seeing him destroy his big sets overpowering with 12+ reps on sets that should have been tough for a set of 5 or 6. Across those next six months we began alternating weeks of heavy RPE work and volume weeks to tease out what was very apparently there and sure enough he jumped from 315 to 345 in just a couple of months. Then, after a brief volume accumulation phase - he entered his first competition prep and we peaked him going into August 2023. Subsequently his squat rose to 358lb. After the 2023 Truborn Knockout competition, I moved Joe into a slow linear progression for the next few months to dedicate more time & recovery for his deadlift. The deadlift grew as planned and the moment we shifted into his next prep he PR'd his squat at 364lb at the end of January 2024. Then through his prep and finally at the 2024 USAPL GA State Championship he squatted a big 385lb squat PR. By this time we had increased his squat frequency using yoke bar squats to work on his leg strength as we started seeing quite a separation in strength between his squat and deadlift - and sure enough he took 405lb just a couple months after that competition. Finally, we made the decision to bring up a second dedicated back squat day to start including more low bar squat work. Temporarily we experienced a bit of a strength decline as he accommodated to the training load/volume. Then, after a much needed deload he collected a 420lb squat PR and then 435lb squat PR in back to back weeks at the end of August/start of October. Since then we entered into one high volume day (50-65%) and one standard volume day (75-85%) and blasted out PRs (now 452lb) in his current prep for the 2024 USAPL Holiday Havoc on December 7th here in a couple of weeks.
So why has it worked/what has worked?
Saving high frequency/constant high intensity training for competition specific peaking
Spending well over 80% of his training in lower frequency barbell squat work and using accessories to constantly build out more of a base of strength
Playing strategy with why he's squatting and always staying aware to the goal of each phase of training
The majority of his training across his first two years as a Powerlifter were dedicated to building out a hypertrophy base
Never missing training. Three days per week is all you need and in Joe's case keeps him recovered.
Deloading every single fourth week no matter what. And post-comp dropping into higher variation training.
Staying injury free. Because Joe's training is always built out as transitioning from goal to goal (specific to what phase he's in), he stays consistent, stays recovered, and rarely hits a true RPE10. Playing the long game.
Communication. Joe talks about how things feels, bounces ideas off of me, and videos as much as his phone will let him - and sends them in live time to me. Sometimes we stray from the plan and make pivots based on how things feel - whether going lighter, going heavier, changing the movement, or taking an additional set. Then, his communication adjusts training in future weeks to better fit with what we need to happen in whatever phase we're in.
Now, he's caught up to guys he once thought he could never touch in strength and is knocking through numbers that he once couldn't ever imagine lifting. This is what you want your training outcomes to look like folks. Not even a whiff of a plateau because we always pivot into the phases he needs. We all want to peak ourselves as often as possible but if you're constantly hitting 3s, 2s, and 1s in training then you're setting yourself up for a nightmare of a ride. The same is true if you ride the 3x5 wagon for far too long or overdo any sort of training style. If you're getting all of your training off a template then you're missing extremely important pieces to training. Trust me, over a decade ago I had started doing "cycle" after "cycle" and always wondering why I was in pain and not able to make meaningful progress year after year. So what's Joe's future? At his upcoming meet, his opener will be over 45lb heavier than his last comp's 3rd attempt. Without a shadow of a doubt, he's going to build that 500lb squat soon - the sky is truly the limit.
Ethan Duck
Start Date: 12/11/23
Starting Back Squat: 518lb (taken on 7/15/23)
Current Back Squat: 595lb
Ethan started with me already having quite a robust background of training. A national caliber deadlift of 690lb but a squat and bench press that needed to play catch up. The deadlift was taking a lot out of Ethan whenever he'd lift 90% or more and we quickly calculated a 14 day turnaround time for him to reach full recovery. It was clear why his squat and bench and even deadlift had started to dip prior to joining our team so we immediately restructured his weekly layout to squatting and sumo deadlift on the same day (no more back to back squat and deadlift days) and putting deadlifts after squat work for the time being. Coming from not so much volume, trained individuals can't suddenly be thrown into a gauntlet of high rep work otherwise you can totally cook them. Instead we did very minimal baseline squat volume with a 2x3 or 3x3 at most and complimenting "burner" sets at the right moments. It took 2 months/8 weeks and he put up a 551lb all time squat pr. Keep in mind that prior to joining, he really hadn't even touched 500 in the 6 months leading up to starting! 32lb in a year would definitely be good development on his squat. Seeing this daylight of exposure convinced me to dial back deadlift frequency to one day per week and get the man good at volume (10's & 6's) before his competition prep would begin for June 2024. Sure enough, it worked and he tripled 518lb (his previous comp best). Meanwhile, sumo deadlift became his main deadlift so we could get that squat competitive AF - and sure enough he tripled 650lb w/ wrist wraps in April. During that time pre-prep his second squat day shifted from heavier emphasis to a squat variation (yoke bar primarily) to dedicate a bit more work to sumo when fresh. Then upon entering prep, we built out the bottom end "weekly minimums" to build on his opener and run math on projected 2nd & 3rd attempts. Ethan took his comp best squat as his opener (518lb) and took 562lb for a squat ATPR. Post-comp we moved into an awesome off-season with easy baseline volume triples with quite a robust tempo and accessory push. Hatfield Reverse Lunges turned out to be an enormous arc that quickly moved from a dim 245lb to 300+ in less than a month. The off-season shifted into 5x5's to transfer his offseason training into his squat and came away with a monstrous build from 419lb 5x5 up to 463lb 5x5 and 474lb 3x5 - and ultimately taking a HUGE 540lb 5RM Squat to tie his 2nd attempt from his June comp. Y'all, this is crazy. And then a 584lb 1RM Squat PR the week after that post-deload. The 5's shifted into 3's and went 250kg/551lb for a 3RM that 1st weekend of October. Then the following week he took 595lb for his current 1RM back squat. You may wonder why this mini-squat peak somewhat oddly placed. Well, initially he was signed up for WRPF Nationals but after the meet switched to PLU we made the decision to look into another federation for future goals since everything would be reset with that federation and new larger meets were since signing up now on the books. End of October/start of november was the start of his current peak for the 2024 Powerlifting America Georgia State Championship. His squat training shifted into RPE-based work with alternating days of planned very light/fast and much heavier stimulus days. And has morphed into higher frequency with planned fatigue/recovery days. We're estimating 600-630lb for his upper limit as of the current work that has been done but time will tell now on meet day what he has in him contingent upon recovery outside the gym, daily nutrition (now is where it matters most), and general stress from work & school & life as a whole. 518 to 595lb in less than a year is absolutely ridiculous. And with this upcoming meet being at his one year anniversary on our team, what an awesome way to celebrate all the gains!
So why has it worked/what has worked?
Ethan has a wrestler mindset. If the bar is loaded, he's going to give his all - and we've tested this in multitudes of ways. Where someone ends a burn out set and then reports if they had more or not in the tank is a HUGE tell to understanding the limits someone places on themselves. I've seen Ethan take 3 reps with 605lb on his deadlift and then somehow take 4 more. It's incredible and a highly unique quality.
Trust in what he's doing. Trust and confidence comes from stacking up wins. If you're in pain and not making progress, it's extremely easy to lose confidence. He knows the process, he knows why he's doing what he's doing and asks questions, he takes the small wins and stacks those up over time, etc.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. The man NEVER misses. We might chop up training in some ways or shift days and adapt the program to what's going on in his life but he refuses to miss. This is a part of his life and there is no other way. It's hard for success to not show up when you never miss.
Always have a pivot. In the programming end of things with someone who has a lot going on in life, adapting programming and making changes albeit weekly is the key to consistent progress. If he's doing his part and communicating, showing up to train, and giving it his best - then adjusting subsequent work outs based on what occurs on any given day will only lead to more. The program is just a guide. And no guide is perfect. Thus, making smart decisions based on how someone is doing is absolutely keyyyyy for continuous growth.
Project no weaknesses. Ethan gets quite an array of accessories. He has very definitive strengths and very small weaknesses that like to show up when fatigue is high whether from training or life. Sometimes, this means easing up on current strengths and applying volume to more long term rewards while counting on current strengths to show up when we need them. When you turn weaknesses into strengths, strengths get stronger.
Deloading. Similar to Joe, every single 4th week is a deload. Period. Sometimes we may tease up volume with 50-60% for certain strategies but no matter what we deload it for Ethan. Deload = less load.
Ethan has huge amounts of potential and I truly think has the capability to get to an Ed Coan status as a Powerlifter. He's young, very composed and doesn't let ANYTHING get to him, and understands the ups and downs of training. His squat morphing like it has is incredible but personally I already have 300kg/660lb and beyond in mind for where he's headed next. His upcoming meet is mostly just a "get qualified" meet but he should do some very fun things.
WHERE MOST GO WRONG
VOLUME.
Yeah yeah yeah, you're a Powerlifter - you should be a master of Squat Bench and Deadlift. But I'm seeing folks more and more regularly never venturing beyond 3's in training. Volume is your friend for a wider base. The wider base you have, the higher the peak you can have. Just because you haven't done it yet doesn't make it bad. If anything, what you haven't done is usually where the keys are waiting. Imagine if you tried the same key on every lock, it might fit a key hole but you need TONS of keys if you're going open a ton of doors. Get your tunnel vision off going heavy, dig deep into volume and build a volume base. Volume accumulation is an INSTRUMENTAL piece of periodization that is basically mandatory for you to reach your peak potential - which is limitless.
INTENSITY MANAGEMENT These days I don't hear much about folks running Smolov or Russian Squat Routine or other similar "squat cycles" but RPE/RIR is all the craze. What folks don't realize is they're ending up taking heavy work every single week with nearly zero deloads. Most folks aren't even running deloads until "taper week" or post-competition. Your body gets stronger when it recovers/when you rest. Squat Bench and Deadlift are just techniques for expressing strength but if you want to actually improve them then they need to be trained with precision and utilizing accessories for enhancing the movements where they're weak. Growth occurs between 80-85% and the science everywhere shows that over and over and over. Even Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell believed that hitting your max effort on the same lift in back to back weeks will make you go backwards inevitably (thus the high degree of variation in lifts every week through his conjugate method). Your RPE7-10 sets (roughly 90-100%) might be setting you back more than you think they're helping you - especially if you're a clean, drug tested lifter. Don't be fooled by your own talent or anyone else's talent and what it looks like anyone else is doing. They ain't showing you the sets where their success comes from - we just see the outcomes.
MASTERING THE MUNDANE Johnny Candito made popular "zero hype" sets and I love it. There's a time to go ballistic but is the right time after a 80% set of 3? Probably not. In fact, blowing apart your adrenals with hype is definitely holding you back in subsequent sessions. Having fun is important but so is recovering! Save yourself and let your training stack. Nobody on instagram really cares, honestly. If you're making real money off the gram though? I mean shoot I'd probably go nuts in every video if my financials depended on it. But even then, everything we do exacts a toll. In life, the boring pieces are where progress comes. Master the mundane and your peaks start peaking even higher.
CONSISTENCY If you train 3 days per week but miss one day religiously every single week - then you're missing 33% of your training. If you train squats 2 days per week but miss one, then you've just missed have your squat work. You can never go wrong being consistent. Even if it's just hitting the empty bar, exposure to the specific movement is what gets you better at the movement. If you're not doing anything then your squat can't increase. If you're hurting then it could be a PERFECT time to squat less but attack the weak points so that you can squat more down the road. Pain and discomfort is rarely a reason to miss the gym and the answer is ALWAYS strengthen what hurts. Weak things hurt, weak things break, and weak things are what's holding back you squat. If you have a coach who's not making them weak points strengths, get a new coach. If you're not training though, nothing can get stronger. Train more and train smart fam!
ACCESSORIES We all gravitate towards the things we're good at. And the same is true with accessories! The accessories that have huge reward are those that you suck at. And the ones where you kick butt are probably not helping your main lifts very much aside from potentially maintaining current strengths. In the case of squat, most people suck at and hate any sort of single leg movement like bulgarian split squats and reverse lunges - there's probably pretty good return in those because they're very exposing movements. Same is true with things like good mornings, chances are your good morning isn't even 60% of your back squat... or even 50% of your back squat... or even 40% of your back squat... Find what you suck at and make yourself great at it. That's how you get stronger.
VARIATION You can literally do squats that expose your issue in the back squat. So why would you not? Yoke bar squats, front squats, and narrow stance squats help build depth, bracing, and more upright mechanics to keep you from having your hips shoot back when standing up squats. Pause squats, low box squats, and pin squats build overcoming strength for the hole and sticking points. Widestance box squats, widestance squat work, and 2 & 3 point pause squats help develop hip/lower body strength & position to prevent mid-lift sticking points. Variation can be an awesome way to bring up your specific comp lift. We like to squat where is comfortable but if you dedicate time and variation to squats that aren't comfortable then you have the chance to strengthen a chink in the armor of your lift. "It feels bad" or "it hurts" should be a big indicator for you in showing you what you need. Accessory variation is a powerful tool and deciding to only implement one new accessory to try to create growth imo is just laziness. This requires a lot of work and exploration to detail a plan that's aimed at enhancing these weak points while cohesively tying together the specificity demands of a training program. We haven't even dug into planar movement and rationale or plyometric design or specific strength quality development. Variation and progression are your keys fam. Imagine you do all of this variation and strengthen a weak point... and then you peak the squat! Oh what the future will hold. Open every single door. Don't be bound by the same boring rinse and repeat template. I'd bet you get jacked, you stop having abrupt debilitating injury, and more.
RECOVERY Sleep 8+ hours. Eat at least maintenance every single day. Hydrate extremely well (https://www.camelbak.com/hydrated/hydration-calculator). And manage stress (breathwork, positive visualization & self-talk, yoga, counseling/therapy, etc.). This section needs to be much more robust. So, I'm going to make a blog post soon about recovery and recovery strategies. We ALL need more recovery and if you're slacking in this department then so is ALL of your lifting. Recovery is where you build strength!
Hopefully all of the above info gives insight into squat strategy and how much more robust you should be considering your own training.
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